Author: Editorial Team

Nickelback has announced its next studio album, Everything Under The Sun, scheduled for release on October 30, 2026, through Virgin Music Group. At the same time, the Canadian rock veterans have released the album’s first single, “Rattle The Cage”, which features guitarist John 5.

The new record is Nickelback‘s first full-length studio release since Get Rollin’ arrived in 2022. The band enters this album cycle following a strong run that included the success of the documentary Hate To Love: Nickelback and the Get Rollin’ world tour, which became the fastest-selling and best-attended tour of the group’s career.

According to the band, Everything Under The Sun reflects the different sides of Nickelback‘s songwriting. The album combines hard-hitting rock tracks with more melodic and reflective material while maintaining the guitar-driven sound that has remained a constant throughout the band’s career.

Leading the release is “Rattle The Cage”, a high-energy track built around heavy riffs, driving hooks, and a fast pace. Featuring John 5, the song aims to capture the atmosphere that has become a trademark of Nickelback‘s live performances.

Frontman Chad Kroeger said: “This album has every side of the band on it. There are songs that hit as hard as anything we’ve ever done, songs that take chances, and songs that remind us why we’ve been doing this together for so long. “Rattle The Cage” felt like the perfect way to kick the door open — it has the energy we’ve been feeding off every night on stage, and we can’t wait for people to hear it.”

From its beginnings in Hanna, Alberta, Nickelback has become one of the most commercially successful rock bands of the past 25 years. The band’s breakthrough came with Silver Side Up, powered by the hit song “How You Remind Me”, and it has since built a catalog that earned Grammy Award nominations along with American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, JUNO Awards, and worldwide recognition.

Over the course of its career, Nickelback has sold nearly 60 million albums, accumulated billions of streams across digital platforms, and continues to attract more than 50 million monthly listeners. Its music continues to connect with longtime fans while reaching new audiences through streaming services.

The band’s momentum continued in recent years as the Netflix documentary Hate To Love: Nickelback reached the platform’s Global Top 10 for multiple weeks, giving viewers a closer look at the band’s history. At the same time, the Get Rollin’ world tour drew record crowds and reinforced Nickelback‘s standing as a major live act.

The upcoming album also marks Nickelback‘s first release through Virgin Music Group. Jacqueline Saturn, president of Virgin Music Group North America, said: “Nickelback has built one of the most remarkable careers in music, and it’s a huge honor for everyone at Virgin Music Group to work alongside a band with such an enduring legacy and global impact. We’re thrilled to partner with them as they begin this exciting new chapter and can’t wait for fans to experience ‘Everything Under The Sun’.”

Now more than three decades into its career, Nickelback continues to expand its catalog while holding on to the sound that established the band as one of modern rock’s biggest names. With Everything Under The Sun, the group opens another chapter with new music and a fresh partnership behind it.

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Candlebox will return to the road this fall with the “Can’t Quit You” tour, a 32-date North American headlining run beginning on September 17 at The Pageant in St. Louis, Missouri, and finishing on October 30 in Sayreville, New Jersey. It will be the band’s biggest headlining trek in several years, featuring rotating support from The Mountain Goats, Sponge, The Verve Pipe, Sweet Water, and American Blonde.

The upcoming tour arrives after guitarist Peter Klett rejoined Candlebox following a decade away from the band. According to frontman Kevin Martin, the reunion has injected fresh creative energy into the group as it moves into its next phase. More than 30 years after releasing its four-times-platinum debut, Candlebox, the Seattle outfit continues to take the same drive and intensity to audiences across North America.

Tickets go on sale on Friday, July 17, at 10:00 a.m. local time. Check here for more information.

Kevin Martin commented: “The phrase ‘Can’t Quit You’ really speaks volumes to how important our fans are to us and the music we create. Candlebox has always relied on the energy our fans bring and the atmosphere that live music brings.”

Several of the tour’s special guests also shared their thoughts about joining the run.

Brian Vander Ark of The Verve Pipe said: “Opening for a band that helped shape the alternative landscape is a fucking dream come true.”

Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge added: “It’s always a thrill to share the stage with Candlebox! Our first major tour in the early ’90s was with Candlebox, and we’ve come full circle. Who says you can’t travel back in time?”

John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats remarked: “Two weeks before we were set to release the song “Candlebox”, a song I wrote in the summer of ’25 and which only we in camp had heard, my manager texted me that Candlebox was seeking support for their first headline tour in a good long minute. It was written in the stars! This fated confluence will light up the skies of St. Louis and Florence like a Roman, wait for it, candle. We answer the call of fate! Meet you in St. Louis, fellas!”

Nata and Tinka Morris of American Blonde said: “We are over the moon to be playing on Candlebox‘s fall tour! Getting to share the stage with musicians we’ve grown up listening to and learning from…excited is an understatement. We cannot WAIT for these shows.”

Rich Credo of Sweet Water shared: “Sweet Water is all about keeping rock alive and sharing our music with the people… we love that we get to do that with our friends Candlebox in our hometown. This show is going to be badass.”

Formed during Seattle’s early-’90s rock explosion, Candlebox quickly established itself as one of the city’s standout acts. Led by vocalist, songwriter, and founder Kevin Martin, the band broke through in 1993 with its self-titled debut, Candlebox, which has sold more than four million copies worldwide. The group’s rise included a main-stage appearance at Woodstock ’94 as well as tours alongside Metallica, Rush, and Aerosmith.

After taking a break between 2000 and 2006, Candlebox returned with a series of studio releases, including Into The Sun (2008), Love Stories & Other Musings (2012), Disappearing In Airports (2016), and Wolves (2021). The band marked the 30th anniversary of its debut in 2023 with The Long Goodbye, followed a year later by The Longer Goodbye (Tour Edition). More than three decades into its career, Candlebox continues to bring its catalog to fans through new music and extensive touring.

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In celebration of Iron Maiden’s 50th anniversary, San Francisco Bay Area thrash veterans Heathen have released a cover of Iron Maiden’s The Number Of The Beast track “The Prisoner.” The recording pulls samples from the classic British TV series of the same name, enlists artist Dan Goldsworthy — known for his work with Accept, Inhuman Condition and Haken — to Eddie-ify the goblin from “Goblin’s Blade,” a callback to Heathen’s 1987 debut Breaking The Silence, and reworks the band’s logo to evoke Maiden’s iconic lettering. The track was mixed and mastered by Chris “Zeuss” Harris at Planet Z, known for his work with 3 Inches of Blood, Municipal Waste and Shadows Fall.

Heathen guitarist Kragen Lum commented: “What can we say about the legendary Iron Maiden that hasn’t already been said? They’ve given us 50 years of energetic, melodic metal that’s inspired Heathen and legions of other bands in the genre.

“‘The Prisoner’ was an easy choice for us to cover, with its heavy intro, uptempo verses, catchy chorus, and classic instrumental section. We added a few touches to ‘Heathenize’ the song while staying true to what made it so great when it was first released in 1982.

“Enjoy this recording as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of heavy metal’s greatest bands. Up the Irons!”

The cover arrives alongside Heathen’s extensive two-leg North American tour. The first leg opens July 17 in Derry, New Hampshire supporting Metal Church, running through July 26 in Leesburg, Virginia. The second leg sees Heathen headline with support from Louisiana horror thrashers Void, kicking off July 27 in Raleigh, North Carolina and wrapping August 9 in Toronto, Ontario.

The band said of the run: “We’re stoked to join the legendary Metal Church on this short tour of the Northeastern U.S. and Canada. We’ll be bringing our A-game for these shows before heading out on a run of headlining dates across the Midwest, Northeast, and Canada with the killer Void as direct support.

“We’ve put together a set packed with classics, fan favorites, and a few surprises that you won’t want to miss. Grab your tickets, and we’ll see you in the pit!”

Heathen North American tour supporting Metal Church:

• July 17 — Derry, NH — Tupelo Music Hall
• July 18 — Montreal, QC — Foufounes Électriques
• July 19 — Quebec City, QC — La Source de la Martinière
• July 21 — Ottawa, ON — Overflow
• July 22 — Newton, NJ — The Newton Theater
• July 23 — Pittsburgh, PA — The Crafthouse
• July 24 — Rochester, NY — Montage Music Hall
• July 25 — Reading, PA — Reverb
• July 26 — Leesburg, VA — Tally Ho Theater

Heathen headline dates with support from Void:

• July 27 — Raleigh, NC — Chapel of Bones
• July 28 — Atlanta, GA — The EARL
• July 31 — Hamden, CT — Space Ballroom
• Aug. 1 — Philadelphia, PA — Nikki Lopez (matinee)
• Aug. 2 — Columbus, OH — Ace of Cups
• Aug. 4 — Milwaukee, WI — X-Ray Arcade
• Aug. 5 — Indianapolis, IN — Black Circle
• Aug. 6 — Detroit, MI — Sanctuary
• Aug. 7 — Kitchener, ON — Maxwell’s
• Aug. 9 — Toronto, ON — The Cave

This past February, Heathen announced a new deal with Napalm Records, marking it with the release of “Never A God,” the title track of Laughing Dead’s first demo — a band fronted by Heathen vocalist David White in the early 1990s.

Heathen is often credited alongside Exodus, Testament, Forbidden, Death Angel and Vio-lence as one of the leaders of the Bay Area thrash metal scene of the mid-to-late 1980s. The band has released four studio albums: Breaking The Silence (1987), Victims Of Deception (1991), The Evolution Of Chaos (2009) and Empire Of The Blind (2020), the latter charting in the Top 40 in Germany, Hungary and Scotland. Heathen’s current lineup is David White (vocals), Kragen Lum (guitars), Kyle Edissi (guitars), Jason Mirza (bass) and Blake Anderson (drums).

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Death Metal Pioneer MIKE BROWNING, Founding Member of MORBID ANGEL and NOCTURNUS, Dies at 62

MIKE BROWNING, Drummer-Vocalist Who Helped Launch MORBID ANGEL in 1986 and Founded NOCTURNUS in 1987, Dies at 62

Former Morbid Angel and Nocturnus drummer-vocalist Mike Browning has died at the age of 62. Browning’s passing was confirmed on July 13 by Profound Lore Records, which released the two albums from his most recent band, Nocturnus AD.

“RIP death metal legend/sci-fi death metal godfather Mike Browning of Nocturnus/Nocturnus AD. Journey beyond the gateway to the outer void!” the label wrote.

Morbid Angel also paid tribute to Browning on Instagram: “R.I.P Mike, thanks for helping making all this happen. Our condolences to his family & especially his daughter.”

Browning played on what was originally intended to be Morbid Angel’s debut album, Abominations Of Desolation. Recorded in 1986, the LP eventually saw the light of day in 1991. In a 2019 interview with Bardo Methodology, Browning stated about Abominations Of Desolation, which was initially recorded for David Vincent’s Goreque Records: “I signed a record contract with Goreque and then recorded a full album in a real studio… There are also a few things out there written by Trey [Azagthoth, Morbid Angel guitarist] himself where he clearly states that the album Abominations Of Desolation was coming out.

“After it had been recorded, we played three shows and Sterling Scarborough replaced John Ortega on bass. Not a word was said about technical shortcomings; everything was all set to go.

“It wasn’t until I caught Trey with my girlfriend and beat the hell out of him — which led to the band splitting in half — that he decided not to release it. Prior to this, Abominations… had been recorded and was going to be presented as Morbid Angel’s first LP. These comments about it not being technically good enough only came once I was out.”

Regarding the 1991 version of Abominations Of Desolation made available through Earache Records, Browning said: “I didn’t think it would ever happen, since the album had already been bootlegged to death. I knew that if someone wanted to hear it, they could find the recording pretty easily on just about any tapetrader list.

“I never thought it would be put out by Trey and David through Earache, especially when I was on the same label with Nocturnus. I remember seeing my friend Jim at the gas station and he had Abominations… blaring through the car stereo. I asked him, ‘What version is that? It sounds really clear’, and he said it was the Earache release which had just come out.

“I was on the label but knew nothing about it. I immediately contacted them: they’d bought the tapes from David Vincent and then released a limited edition in order to stop the bootlegging. Dig from Earache told me it was David’s decision to not credit anyone by name or picture in the booklet. By leaving out who played on the album or who wrote what, it was treated like a bootleg of a bootleg by both them and Earache. Could you imagine doing a real Abominations… remix from the original reels?”

In 1987, Browning left Morbid Angel and founded Nocturnus alongside guitarists Vincent Crowley and Gino Marino and bassist Richard Bateman. That original iteration of the band recorded a raw, occult-themed self-titled demo before shifting into a progressive, sci-fi-oriented direction with keyboards in the late 1980s. Browning served as drummer and vocalist on 1990’s The Key and played drums only on 1992’s Thresholds before being fired from the band in 1993.

Other projects during the 1980s and 1990s included Florida death metal bands Incubus and Acheron. In 2008, Browning released a solo album, Trancemissions, via Pharmafabrik Recordings under the Mike Browning’s Inner Workings banner.

Browning’s most recent band, Nocturnus AD, released its debut album, Paradox, in 2019 and its follow-up, Unicursal, in 2024, both via Profound Lore Records. Browning is survived by a daughter born in 2007.

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Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick, equally renowned as a composer and improviser across metal and jazz, spoke about some of his earliest guitar influences in a new interview with Rad Jet.

Skolnick said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Going back, when I first started playing at 10 years old, I would say my first two or three years I was really focused on songs, and I didn’t know if I wanted to be a rhythm guitar player, singer, or a lead guitarist. I was more into John Lennon, Paul Stanley, Elvis [Presley]. I loved ’50s rock.

“Although Chuck Berry, he really inspired me to play guitar. He was in a movie called ‘American Hot Wax’. Yeah. And then I later made the connection: ‘Oh, he inspired The Beatles, he inspired AC/DC, he inspired Kiss.’ But he was really my idea of a lead guitarist until I heard Van Halen.

“And when I heard Van Halen, it was a few years after the debut. And this was already the early ’80s, so say, like, ’82 or so. I’m 13. They were already on, like, album four or five. But that was when I first heard that debut album, and then I had that same experience that many people talk about having in 1978 when the needle hit the vinyl and ‘Eruption’ [came on].

“I mean, ‘Runnin’ With The Devil’ was enough just ’cause of the tone, and the solo in that, it’s a composed solo, so it’s overshadowed by a lot of [Eddie Van Halen’s] other [stuff]… But that is amazing, too. I mean, nobody played like that. He already paved new ground just with ‘Runnin’ With The Devil’. And then, of course, ‘Eruption’ happened and then, okay. The world has changed.”

Skolnick added: “The Beatles [were] probably [my] biggest [early influence], or Kiss as well, and Chuck Berry, all of those. But then it quickly evolved into Van Halen, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, AC/DC.

“I think [AC/DC lead guitarist] Angus Young actually deserves a lot more credit. He’s a guy that gets a lot of attention more as a performer. But he’s a really fantastic musician. And [late AC/DC guitarist] Malcolm [Young], too, may he rest in peace… And Eddie Van Halen cited [Malcolm] as one of his favorite musicians. And they were close friends too.”

One of the elite guitar shredders of the 1980s, Skolnick was famously a student of Joe Satriani alongside Steve Vai and Metallica’s Kirk Hammett, and was sought out by Ozzy Osbourne, playing a gig with the Black Sabbath legend in the U.K. in 1995. Skolnick joined Testament in 1985 at age 16, stayed for eight years before departing in 1993, and went on to study at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music.

Skolnick’s long-running Brooklyn-based jazz-rock band Alex Skolnick Trio (AST) recently released its sixth album, Prove You’re Not A Robot, via Flatiron Recordings. Alongside Skolnick’s inventive guitar work, bassist Nathan Peck and drummer Matt Zebroski bring rhythmic complexity and emotional depth, with odd-time signatures and genre twists that have become AST hallmarks. Since forming in the early 2000s, AST has reimagined the jazz guitar trio by melding influences as far-reaching as Wes Montgomery, Black Sabbath, Prince, tango, calypso, and Western swing, earning praise from Billboard, Downbeat, Jazziz, The Village Voice, and NPR.

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L7 bassist, photographer and multidisciplinary artist Jennifer Finch has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer and is currently undergoing treatment. What initially appeared to be a condition that could be addressed through treatment and a full course of radiation has progressed rapidly, requiring Jennifer to undergo multiple surgeries and resulting in significant physical limitations. She now requires extensive ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, and professional in-home assistance.

Jennifer’s many friends, collaborators and family have launched a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the substantial expenses associated with her treatment and recovery. The campaign can be found at gofundme.com/f/jennifer-finch-vs-brain-cancer-its-time-to-make-noise.

Jennifer’s diagnosis also means that she will be unable to participate in the fall 2026 U.S. leg of L7’s previously announced “The Last Hurrah Tour.” L7’s final tour was planned with Jennifer when all four members were in good health and spirits. Although she will not be able to join the band for the upcoming U.S. dates, Jennifer has asked L7 to continue with the tour as planned, which the band has made the decision to do. She will be temporarily replaced at these concerts by Tsuzumi Okai, who was previously a touring bassist for Limp Bizkit in 2018.

Donita Sparks said on behalf of the band: “We are all devastated by the news and are surrounding her with love, protecting her privacy and dignity, while helping raise the resources she urgently needs for the care ahead. Jennifer is family, and we want her to feel the full strength of the community that has loved and supported her for so many years.”

“The Last Hurrah Tour” — the first leg of L7’s final world tour — kicks off in the U.S. on Oct. 9, with stops planned in New York City, Washington D.C., Nashville, Chicago, Seattle and more, wrapping up with a hometown celebration in Los Angeles.

L7 was formed in 1985 and went on indefinite hiatus in 2001. A 2015 reunion tour was followed by the documentary L7: Pretend We’re Dead in 2016. L7’s first album in 20 years, Scatter The Rats, was released in May 2019 via Joan Jett’s Blackheart Records.

L7’s self-titled debut album arrived in 1988. The band’s third studio effort, Bricks Are Heavy, came out in 1992 and peaked at No. 160 on the Billboard 200; 1994’s Hungry For Stink reached No. 117; and 1997’s The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum achieved a No. 172 high. The 1992 single “Pretend We’re Dead” peaked at No. 8 on the Alternative Airplay chart, while “Andres” off Hungry For Stink reached No. 20. Several of L7’s songs have appeared on major film soundtracks, including “Sh*tlist” on both Pet Sematary II and Natural Born Killers, and “Shove” on Tank Girl.

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Former Iron Maiden singer Blaze Bayley has spoken about being included on the list of members who will represent the legendary British heavy metal band at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s Class of 2026 induction, in a new interview with Paul Christine of the Hard Rock History Show. Blaze, who fronted Iron Maiden for five years and appeared on two of the group’s studio albums — 1995’s The X Factor and 1998’s Virtual XI — will be inducted alongside the band’s current lineup of singer Bruce Dickinson, bassist Steve Harris and guitarists Adrian Smith, Dave Murray and Janick Gers, as well as former singer Paul Di’Anno, ex-guitarist Dennis Stratton and former drummers Nicko McBrain and Clive Burr.

Speaking about whether he would like to attend the ceremony, Bayley said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “I would love to go. I would love to represent the band in a very positive way. I’d love to be a part of that. It’s a huge lifetime thing. Whatever you think about awards — we don’t get into it for awards, but I mean, you’re talking about Led Zeppelin being in there and all of that. So it’s huge, really. And it’s a kind of thing that I don’t think too much about, and so many people mention it: ‘Man, congratulations.’ And it’s really nice that… I mean, that is considered important by a lot of people, and so they consider me, and my work has been recognized, and that’s a really lovely feeling.”

Bayley added: “So I’d love to go to the presentation. I don’t know yet if I’m available at the moment. On my calendar, I’m not booked… There’s a couple of weeks in November I’m not booked. I’ve got no gigs. It falls on the presentation night. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, so I would love to go.”

The 2026 Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame ceremony is set for Nov. 14 at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. It will air on ABC and Disney+ the following month. Iron Maiden will be in the middle of an Australian tour that night, with dates booked Nov. 13 in Melbourne and Nov. 15 in Sydney. Earlier this month, Dickinson and Harris told Metal Hammer magazine that they would not attend the induction ceremony even if it did not conflict with their tour. Harris explained: “I don’t do those sort of things. I didn’t even go to the recent red-carpet thing for the [Iron Maiden] documentary. It’s not me.”

In a separate interview last month with Rev. Tom Brice of Sportzwire Radio, Bayley said: “Well, I don’t think any of us get into heavy metal and follow it as a profession to get awards, but it’s nice to be recognized…

“And the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame — Led Zeppelin, I mean, giant of giants, almost so big that they can’t be considered as part of normal music. And to be part of that and all the other wonderful artists, to be considered there with the work that I’ve done and the songs that I’ve written and the music that we’ve done, it’s just incredible, really.”

Bayley continued: “What’s interesting, whereas I might go, ‘Well, I’m not in it for awards,’ for a lot of my fans, it’s important for them. For a lot of my fans, it’s important. They think, ‘Yes, he should be recognized.’ And so that’s really, really cool, that my fans enjoy the fact that their favorite singer has been recognized by the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.”

Iron Maiden has been eligible for the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame since 2004 but had only been nominated twice before this cycle — in 2021 and in 2023, when the band finished fourth in the fan vote. The two Maiden albums Bayley appeared on sold considerably less than the band’s prior releases and were the group’s lowest-charting titles in the U.K. since 1981’s Killers.

The only metal or metal-adjacent acts to have been inducted into the Rock Hall to date are Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Kiss, Van Halen, Rush, Guns N’ Roses, Ozzy Osbourne and Deep Purple. Kiss, eligible since 1984, did not receive its first nomination until 2009 and was finally inducted in 2014. Deep Purple was eligible since 1993 but not inducted until 2016. Motörhead has yet to be recognized by the institution despite its influence on the genre.

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Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Alice Cooper is set to hit the road again this fall, bringing his trademark stage production back across North America with the 2026 leg of the Alice’s Attic tour. Known for combining horror movie imagery, vaudeville influences, and garage rock, Alice Cooper has spent decades delivering a live show that continues to draw fans of all generations.

The upcoming run begins on October 27 in Clearwater, Florida, before wrapping up on November 21 in Reno, Nevada.

The current stage production first appeared during last fall’s co-headlining tour with Judas Priest and will now reach a new batch of cities as the headline trek continues.

Earlier this year, longtime guitarist Nita Strauss stepped away from the touring lineup as she prepared to welcome her first child this summer. In April, Alice Cooper introduced British guitarist Anna Cara as her replacement.

At 23, Anna Cara, who hails from Newcastle, England, has previously performed alongside Marc Storace of Krokus and Tommy Henriksen, guitarist for both Alice Cooper and Hollywood Vampires. She has also built a strong following on Instagram through her performance videos.

Anna Cara made her first live appearances with Alice Cooper during the special “Welcome To Our Nightmare” shows held April 2-4 in Las Vegas. The performances were presented in partnership with illusionist Criss Angel and took place at his theater inside Planet Hollywood.

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Legendary extreme metal drummer Gene Hoglan, whose iconic performances appear on the classic Death albums Individual Thought Patterns (1993) and Symbolic (1995), has spoken candidly about his complicated feelings toward the 2016 Chuck Schuldiner documentary Death By Metal in a new interview with the IMPACT Metal Channel.

Asked for his opinion of the film, in which he was prominently featured, Hoglan responded (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “There was a [2025 eight-part docuseries] on the American sort of cable network Hulu — it’s an American streaming service, Hulu — that’s called ‘Into The Void[: Life, Death & Heavy Metal]’, that I thought did a really good documentary on Chuck that’s a decent one.”

“I never had a good taste in my mouth about the [‘Death By Metal’] Chuck documentary because one of the people who was very prominently displayed in the documentary, and also very — I’ll say flat out — unfortunately mistakenly displayed throughout the eras of Death, in the mid-2000s and things like that, where that person came to all of us the morning of our filming. We filmed that thing in Toronto, ‘cause that’s where the company was based that was filming it, playing a show in Toronto, and I was told, ‘Hey, throw Chuck under the bus,’ essentially. Like, ‘Tell all the dirt stories and all the… Just don’t hold back.’ And I’m, like, ‘Why would anybody do that? Why would anybody request that?’ Maybe they wanted some controversy in the film, but I tell you, I’m… Controversy and me, I have no desire to get involved in any form of controversy or try to tell some dirt or anything like that, ‘cause I have none. So that’s why I have my versions of the way I saw things, and I’m always able to find a way to express what I feel. But if it means mudslinging, as it is called, I had no desire to do that. So that’s why when I’m doing my interview, those words are just echoing in my head from three hours earlier. ‘Yeah, throw Chuck under the bus.’ I’m just, like, ‘Why would you, of all people, be telling me that? … I don’t trust you, I don’t like you, I don’t think you should even be involved in this project ever.’ And now that it’s a few years later, it’s being established that people are realizing, ‘You’re right. That person should have never been involved in this thing.’ So, that’s the way I see it.”

Hoglan added: “I have no desire to try to create some controversy. The music… Is not death metal controversial enough? The music will speak for itself. I don’t need to be trying to add to its narrative, either good or bad. It’s like I can report the facts as I see them, and so that’s what I chose to do in that movie. But if people like the movie, great. I know the people involved in making the movie; they wanted to make a movie about Chuck. Kickass. Good job. It was some of the behind-the-scenes just whisperings in ears that were unappreciated by me. So that’s why my whole interview in that, I’m just, like, ‘Screw you, dude.’ That kind of thing. So there you go.”

Death By Metal received a DVD release in July 2018 via MVD Visual. It was written and directed by Canadian filmmaker Felipe Belalcazar, who told Decibel magazine at the time of the documentary’s release: “I identified with him. As a freelancer, you might identify with being close to work and being passionate about what you do. He seemed like someone who was passionate about his work. Another thing I wanted to show in this movie: Chuck was a regular dude… Chuck was also an amazing family man — that came up in so many interviews.”

Belalcazar described the scope of the documentary: “[Death By Metal] is an official documentary approved by the family. I did more than 22 interviews; not even all of them can be in the documentary. I’m told we did the first interview on film with his mom. She told us everything — from the first day he got a guitar to when he passed away. It was one of the hardest interviews I’ve ever done. We interviewed his nephew, his sister, Chris Reifert [Death, Autopsy] and two to three members from each lineup, including the Control Denied records. We also interviewed [producer] Jim Morris.”

Released in September 2025, Into The Void: Life, Death & Heavy Metal — the eight-part Hulu docuseries Hoglan cited favorably — explored the struggles and cultural impact of heavy metal’s most compelling artists. The series was created by Jason Eisner and Evan Husney, co-creators of the pro wrestling documentary series Dark Side Of The Ring, which became Vice TV’s most-watched series of all time.

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For more than four decades, Armored Saint have remained one of the defining names in American heavy metal. Formed in Pasadena, California, the band has carried the classic metal torch since the early 1980s, continuing to deliver powerful live performances and new music without losing sight of its roots.

In 2026, Armored Saint appeared at Germany’s Rock Hard Festival in Gelsenkirchen, where Rockpalast captured the band’s set. Among the performances was “Reign Of Fire,” the opening track from Symbol Of Salvation. Originally released in 1991, the album later returned in a 2003 reissue and remains one of the band’s most celebrated records.

Emotion Factory Reset, Armored Saint‘s ninth studio album since 1984’s March Of The Saint, marks another important chapter in the band’s history. Described as “a resurrection of sorts, a tearing down and a rebuilding in eleven songs of diverse musicality and lyrical themes,” the record reflects a group that continues to evolve while staying true to its identity.

As with the band’s previous four releases, bassist Joey Vera handled production, while Jay Ruston (Anthrax, Stone Sour) took care of mixing. The result is an album that pushes Armored Saint into new territory without abandoning the elements that earned them their reputation in heavy music.

Tracks such as “Close To The Bone,” “Hit A Moonshot,” and “Every Man-Any Man” showcase that balance, with Armored Saint paying tribute to their legacy while writing music that feels relevant today.

The sessions for Emotion Factory Reset took place at several facilities, including 606 Studios, Secret Hand Studios, Skullseven Studios, Constantine Studios, and Bridge Recording. Engineering duties were shared by Oliver Roman, Bill Metoyer, Joey Vera, and Jason Constantine, while DDKing created the album artwork.

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